Wikipedia:User page design guide/Introduction: Difference between revisions

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K.S. Ernst

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K.S. Ernst has been writing poetry, making art, and creating visual poetry works for over 40 years. [http://library.osu.edu/sites/rarebooks/finding/ernst.php] Some of the most interesting implications, of K.S. Ernst’s artwork are how it reads as [[Creative Non-Fiction]], and [[Visual Poetry]]/Visual Fiction. When the story of Creative Non-Fiction and Visual Poetry is told in the United States, works by K.S. Ernst are imperative to that telling. Poetry Magazine ([1]), published by the Poetry Foundation in Chicago, will feature Visual Poetry in its upcoming issue. When published, K.S. Ernst’s art will be on newsstands nationwide. For now, Ernst calls herself a “visio-textual artist,” who hopes that really great art is not judged by the neatness of the category in which it fits. (Interview, Amy Hufnagel)

[[Image:Qxz-ad39.png|center]]

Welcome to the user page design guide. In this multi-page guide, you will find advice on how to develop your user page, and resources that you can copy and paste to make it easier.

Born in St Louis, MO, USA (1946- ), she is the daughter of a mother visual artist/furniture builder and father who was a Professor of Psychology with an expertise in auditory and [[cutaneous communications]]. Please review at [2]. She has two sisters. Her parent’s academic work took Ernst from St. Louis, MO, to Charlottesville, VA, to Princeton, NJ, at each place’s best institution. She spent her first year of college at Smith College and then married Ernie Ernst, a successful manufacturer, collector, jazz musician, and nature lover. K.S. Ernst graduated from Monmouth University and has spent her adult life living in New Jersey.

Eventually, many Wikipedians turn their attention to their user pages. A nice user page can create a stronger tie between a user and the community, but it can be a daunting and time consuming task. One can spend countless hours searching the User and Wikipedia namespaces for ideas on what to include and design features to add, and even longer trying to figure out how to put them all together.

While Ernst is best known as one of the most important examples of late twentieth-century/early twenty-first century female visual poets in America, she is also known in the digital arts and fine arts communities. Ernst’s work is applicable to the genres of sculpture, multimedia, works on paper, and new digital works. Her work has critical applicability to art historical discussions regarding late twentieth-century use of image and text, or perhaps more succinctly the “text as image” trend as seen in important contemporary artists like Xu Bing.

Many resources and examples have been gathered and presented here to save users time which they can in turn apply to improving the encyclopedia:

Ernst’s art is the logical manifestation of text in verbal and visual art forms in American Modernism; the trend of using text in art continues through the didactic identity and political work of the 1980s and 90s. But Ernst is a counterpoint to say Barbara Kruger and Jenny Holzer; Ernst is more along the lines of Carrie Mae Weems’s poetics and folkloric pieces, or parallel to Richard Kostelanetz’s [Wiki link] abstract text constructs. She also employs impressive Fluxist characteristics in her book arts and performance art, as seen in her work with the Be Blank Consort, and here another rooting in fine art traditions is applied to K.S. Ernst’s use of text. In short, K.S. Ernst makes artwork that is the analysis/play of the concept “text as image;” and this study has a tradition in art history. Visual poetry is a genre of visual expression, as well as a category of poetic study. It is born from the act of writing poetry, but slips between discipline areas because the practice uses the language of visual art to “write.” Often the text becomes symbolic and iconic representation; one writes/experiments with letters, words, images, and space.

: From various pages of this guide (see the menu bar at the top of this page), you can simply cut and paste the wikicode of the design elements you wish to use on your userpage; and then modify them if you like, to create your own personal style.

As an artist, Ernst moves from sculpture to computer technologies employing a variety of manual/sculptural and technological methodologies in her work. Ernst began using computer technologies in her work in the 80s and the computer has factored as a major tool in her creative process and output; this time frame, in computer art history, places her at the forefront of digital file making.

: You can also browse the [[Wikipedia:User page design guide/User page Hall of Fame|User page Hall of Fame]] to see examples of what others have done with their user pages.

Writes critic Karl Young, “Her earliest visual poetry, from the late 1960s, began with spatial exploration of text, primarily playing on negative space in relation to constellations and clusters of letters ... usually relating to the sensuality of stroke segments and junctures.” Her current work uses digital printing on silk, organza, and denim in multi-layered visual texts with painting and fiber manipulation. Ernst writes, “I have ventured into visual, rather than rhythmic, aspects of a poem.” And, “I make poems in forms other than books” so that one can not “shut the book on my storytelling.”

To help you get started, here is some general advice on building a user page...

Texts like The Aesthetics of Visual Poetry, 1914-1928 by Willard Bohn and the “monstrous anthologies like those of Solt and Williams” cites that those “who have continued the art (of visual poetics) have become more dedicated and have greatly expanded the medium, keeping it one of the most vital and inventive directions in contemporary poetry” says Karl Young of Kaldron On-Line in 1998 ([3]). K.S. Ernst is a primary, critical example of a woman artist coming of age in this vibrant poetic expression, and remaining committed to artistic practice for years. She is one of the best examples of late twentieth century/early twenty first century female visual poets in America. (The genre of visual poetry can be easily researched [4]; here one will find a great starting point if the genre of visual poetry - and relating concrete poetry - is to be considered.)

== Familiarize yourself with the User pages guideline, first ==

Cheat Sheet Chronology In the 1970s K.S. Ernst began to make workbooks of pieces she thought up (now numbering over 1000), and then began building pieces. She made truly fascinating and playful sculptural word constructions. In the 1980s Ernst made work, exhibited, read, and used the computer. In the 1990s the same work continued; plus, she created a working archive of her entire collection, housed Ohio State University Libraries, Rare Books and Manuscripts Avant Writing Collection In 2000 Ernst continued to learn new soft- and hard-ware and experiment with different artistic processes. She formalized her practice of collaborating with other poets as a “production and inspiration model.” Institutions and collectors are acquiring her work, and she continues to remain committed to art making and thinking.

: ''See: [[Wikipedia:User pages]]''

== Choose a format ==

K.S. Ernst creatively and fiscally manages Press Me Close where she published visual poetry postcards and T-shirts [Add: “in the 1980s.”] Her work has been published extensively in books and magazines. She has shown her work nationally and internationally for years, and is included in many important art collections. Ernst has also participated in artist residencies, lectures, and performances. Below is a list of these resources.

If you are new to Wikipedia, you might consider using [[Wikipedia:User page design guide/Style#Article format|the standard article format]] for your userpage initially. That should suffice while you're learning the ropes.

Quote from K.S. Ernst, "I am interested in words and letters as symbols — their basic symbolic makeup as well as their representational use. Thus it is words and letters that form a common thread throughout my work. I work in a variety of media including collage, fiber, painting, sculpture, assemblage, and installations."

: If you don't have a user page yet and don't know how to create a page, then click on your user name at the top of the screen and follow the instructions (if the page already exists, your username will be blue instead of red).

Selected Web sites: Ohio State University Libraries, Rare Books and Manuscripts: [5] and [6] Light and Dust Books/Kaldron website: [7] Minimalist Concrete Poetry: [8] Mad Hatters’ Review Multi-Media Literary Journal: [9] Big Bridge #12: [10] Shard at CoCA: [11] dbqp: visualizing poetics: A Dozen Collaborative Visual Poems: com/2004/06/ dozen-collaborative-visual-poems.html dbqp: Visualizing Poetics (SoundVision/VisionSound III): [12] dbqp Carchives: [13] ART Somerville: [14] Energy Gallery: [15] Spidertangle, The Book: [16] Visual Poetry at Durban Segnini: [17] Blackbox: [18] Eratio: [19] + [20] + [21] Comprepoetica Blog 1029: [22] Visual Poetry at the Durban Segnini Gallery: [23] and [24] and [25] Delaware Poetry Review of “Bogg”: [26] Mad Poet Symposium: [27] Review of Ohio State University’s Avant Garde: The Second Wave, by Igor Satanovsky: [28] Comprepoetica blog 701: [29] Siliman’s Blog (Spidertangle, the Book): [30] The Center for Book Arts (Writing to be Seen show): [31] Joglars: [32] Score’s Scorecard: [33] Homonumous contributors: [34] Visual Poets Discussion Board: [35] Word for Word bios: [36] (mentioned in Michael Peters) A Brief History of Visual Poetry/Karl Kempton (34 pages): [37] Manglar: [38] Ohio State University Recognitions: [39] Literature na Swiecie 11-12/2006: [40] Umbrella Magazine: [41] A Guidebook to Visual Poetry: [42] The Blind Chatelaine’s Keys (review of Sugar Mule): [43]

: If you don't have a user account, then click on "log in" at the top of the page, and then click on "Create an account" and fill in the boxes. Write your password down somewhere in case you forget it, and whatever you do, don't forget where you put your password!

Selected Exhibitions: SUNY Albany Art Museum, performance, 2009. Roanoke Marginal Arts Festival, Roanoke, VA, Presentation and performance, 2009. 30th Annual Southwest Texas Popular/American Culture Association Meeting, Performance and presentation, Albuquerque, NM, 2008. Bowery Poetry Center, New York, NY, Performance, 2007. Rondo Community Library, St. Paul, MN, 2007. Piece etched in glass door. Prescott College, IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF LANGUAGE SERIES – PART II: The Be Blank Consort. Performance, 2006. “New Gallery Series,” exhibition and performance, Community Music Center of Boston, Boston, MA, 2006. “2006 Northeast PA Regional Art,” Marywood University, Scranton, PA 2006. “Many Many,” Mid-America Print Conference, Ohio University, Majestic Gallery, Athens, OH, 2006. “Juxtaposition: We Are So!,” Berkeley Art Center, Boulder, CO, 2006. “Blends and Bridges,” Gallery 324, Cleveland, OH, 2006. “There’s a Song in My Art,” Edison Arts Society, Edison, NJ, 2006. “SHARD: Textual Fragments in a Shattered World,” Cornish College of the Arts, Seattle, WA, 2006. “Typical & Atypical,” The Ontological Museum, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico, 2006. “Silicon Sands,” Las Cruces Museum of Fine Art, Las Cruces, NM 2005. “Sound Vision/vision Sound III,” The Nave Gallery, Somerset, MA, 2005. “Still, Life with Words,” Gallery 308, Minneapolis, MN, 2005. “Visual Poetry,” Durban Segnini Gallery, Coral Gables, FL, exhibition and performance, 2005. “Subtropics Experimental Music and Sound Arts Festival,” Dorch Gallery, Miami, FL, exhibition, presentation, and performance, 2005. “Multiplicity for the Millions,” 2002, Minnesota Center for Book Arts Minneapolis, MN. “Women’s History Month/Female Faculty Show,” 2004, Taos Institute of Arts, Taos, NM. “Alphabets,” Oculus Gallery, Tokyo, Japan, 2004. “Word Seen,” Diana Lowenstein Fine Arts, Miami, FL Exhibition & performance 2003. “Writing to Be Seen,” curator, Minnesota Center for Book Arts at Open Book, Minneapolis, MN, exhibition, presentation, and performance, 2003. Miami International Book Fair Exhibition, Miami FL, 2002. “Writing to Be Seen,” curator, The Center for Book Arts, New York, NY, exhibition and performance, 2002. “An American Avant Garde: Second Wave,” Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, performance, presentation, and exhibition, 2002. Books and Books, Coral Gables, FL, exhibition, performance, book launch, 2002. “Art of the Book, 2002,” University of Indianapolis, Indianapolis, IN, 2002. “02txt, a Celebration of the Visual Word,” Art Academy of Cincinnati, exhibition and performance, 2002. “Inside OUT,” Atlantic Center for the Arts, New Smyrna Beach, FL, exhibition/performance, 2001. “Six Contemporary American Visual Poets,” Ocean Grove, Australia, 2000. “25 Years of Feminism, 25 Years of Women’s Art,” Douglass College at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, 1996. “This Is a Book Show!” S.U.N.Y. College at Oneonta, Oneonta, NY, 1992. “Garden State Women,” Women’s Caucus for Art, Rabbet Gallery, New Brunswick, NJ, 1988. “Women Artist Series,” Douglass College at Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, NJ, 1987. “Pages of Revelation,” City Without Walls, Newark, NJ, 1986. “Letters,” Women’s Caucus for Art National Show, The Clocktower, New York, 1986. “Liberty’s Book Opened,” Women’s Caucus for Art, New York, 1986. Princeton University, Princeton University League, Princeton, NJ, One-woman show, 1983. “Wordswork,” Coffman Union Gallery, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, 1983. “Language and Structure in North America,” Kensington Arts Association Gallery, Toronto, Canada, 1975.

User page formatting is covered at [[Wikipedia:User page design guide/Style]].

Selected Publications: Books: Drop Caps, Xexocial Editions, 2008; Permutoria, Luna Bisonte Prods, 2008; Visual Poetry in the Avant Writing Collection, The Ohio State University Libraries, 2008; Winterbook (19th annual), MN Center for Book Arts, 2007; >2: An Anthology of New Collaborative Poetry,Sugar Mule, 2007; June 30th Manifesto, 2004; Literature na Sweicie 11-12, 2006; 12 Colorborations, 2004; Visual Poems, 2003; Spidertangle, The Book, 2003; Writing to Be Seen, edited by Bob Grumman and Crag Hill, summer 2001; Plaisir D’Amour, a portfolio of visual poetry, 2002; Three Visual Poets: Ernst, Helmes, Rosenberg, 2002; Thought Bubbles, with Scott Helmes 2001, ’Pon a Time Flame, with John M. Bennett, 2001, G Is for Georgia, Press Me Close, 1990; Loose Watch Anthology 1998, SEQUENCING: 1984, Xexoxial Editions; Some of the magazines in which my work has appeared include the following: Bogg, Core, Dirt, Drafting, Farrago, Generator, Homonumos, Lost & Found Times, Kaldron, Manglar, Polartis, Posted, Score, Skald, Unarmed, Xtant. Work featured in Photo Techniques 2/06 issue.

For examples of user page layouts, see the [[Wikipedia:User page design guide/User page Hall of Fame|User page Hall of Fame]].

Residencies: Residency (Geraldine R. Dodge sponsored), Peters Valley Craft Center, Layton, NJ. with Amy Hufnagel. March, 2008; Centrum Arts creative residency, Port Townsend, WA, 2002; Atlantic Center for the Arts, New Smyrna Beach, FL, 2001.

== Choose an approach ==

Workshops Given: Centrum Center for Arts and Education, Port Townsend, WA, two-day workshop, 2002; Books and Books, Miami, FL, one day workshop 2002;

You could design your userpage as your:

Selected Collections: Beinecke Library at Yale University, The Brooklyn Museum Library; Ohio State University Collection of Avant Garde and Experimental Writing (complete works); Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, Artists’ Book Collection; The New York Public Library Artists’ Books Collection, print room 38; SUNY Buffalo Poetry Collection; The Ruth and Marvin Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry.

=== Personal profile page ===

Collaborations with other artists: Al Ackerman, C. Mehrl Bennett, John M. Bennett, Josh Carr, David Cole, Bob Grumman, Scott Helmes, Richard Kostelanetz, Carlos Luis, Sheila Murphy, Michael Peters, Marilyn R. Rosenberg, Karl Young and many mail artists.

An autobiographical user page presents you to the community, and could include your views, your objectives, and your contributions, among just about anything else about you. When just starting out, the standard article format is the easiest way to present information on yourself.

Interesting trivia:

=== Personal Main page ===

Ernst became K.S. after marrying and becoming the third “Kathleen” in the Ernst family. Although she has published and exhibited under “K.S.” consistently, she is still sometimes referred to as Kathy Ernst.

With a link at the top of every page, your userpage is a convenient place to put what you frequently access. You could include content via template, such as {{tl|signpost-subscription}} {{tl|totd}} and {{tl|potd}}. Or you could design it to be [[Wikipedia:Tip of the day/September 28|your customizable Wikipedia navigation hub]]. Or both.

Eugene (Ernie) Ernst is a successful manufacturer [44] and has supported K.S. Ernst’s ability to focus on her creative work. He is her trusted and supportive patron and partner.

=== Workshop ===

K.S. Ernst is formally trained as a chemist, likes to ride motorcycles and fly planes. K.S. Ernst makes her own yogurt, does not enjoy cooking, but loves a good scone.

A space to organize your tasks and projects. It could contain wish lists, links to works-in-progress, your to-do list, and so on.

K.S. Ernst has a camera pointed at the animals in the forest behind her house with a motion detector hooked to the shutter.

=== Customized advice/instruction page ===

== The sections of the UPDC ==

* '''[[Wikipedia:User Page Design Center/About you|About you]]''' - this section is about the focal content of your user page: information about you. Tell us about yourself!

As you acquire experience as a Wikipedian, keep in mind that your user page is the perfect place to share it. It's where other users go to find out more about you, what you are like, and how you think. You can use it to present your editing and organizational knowhow, express your wikiphilosophy, and share your dream for Wikipedia.

* '''[[Wikipedia:User Page Design Center/Navigation aids|Navigation aids]]''' - you can include these on your user pages to help you make your way around Wikipedia more easiily.

* '''[[Wikipedia:User Page Design Center/Metadata|Metadata]]''' - information about your userpage, your user account, and about Wikipedia. Page identifiers, edit counts, total articles on Wikipedia, current vandalism danger, and things like that.

=== Multi-page system ===

* '''[[Wikipedia:User Page Design Center/Scripts|Your monobook.js page]]''' - how to enhance your user account with javascripts.

* '''[[Wikipedia:User Page Design Center/User Page Hall of Fame|User Page Hall of Fame]]''' - the best user pages on Wikipedia: some for design, some for content, and some for sheer character!

This approach is for users who find that one page just isn't enough. Set up separate pages for separate uses. A menu bar at the top of each page can visually tie each page together, and help to navigate between them. See ''[[Wikipedia:User page design guide/Menus and subpages|Menus and subpages]]''.

* '''[[Wikipedia:User Page Design Center/Style|Style (formatting)]]''' - the nuts and bolts of page design, as they apply to user pages. Explains design elements with lots of "how to" instructions and wikicode samples that you can cut and paste onto your pages.

* '''[[Wikipedia:User Page Design Center/Menus and subpages|Menus & subpages]]''' - you don't just have a user page, you have your own "user space", which can have as many subpages as you desire. Plus there are many menus provided by which you may tie your pages together to allow easy navigation between them

=== Multi-purpose user page design ===

* '''[[Wikipedia:User Page Design Center/Decor|Art, Decor, etc.]]''' - you can spruce your user pages up with banners, pictures, icons, and other things. There are also some practical resources like the "tip of the day" templates.

* '''[[Wikipedia:User Page Design Center/Help and collaboration|Help and collaboration!]]''' - This is where to hook up with others about user pages: get your questions answered, and even get hands-on help. And if you'd like to give rather than receive help, there's even a place for you to sign up to join our UPDC Help Team.

Mix and match elements of the above approaches to fit your goals and needs.

== Be creative, and... ==

=== Express yourself ===

Nothing tells more about who you are than a work of art that you create. Make your user page that work of art! If you get stuck, borrow. There's no penalty for "stealing" an idea from someone else, just be sure to change it around and make it yours or give them credit for the idea. ''Examples: [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:ElAmericano&oldid=47357653 User:ElAmericano], [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:The_prophet_wizard_of_the_crayon_cake&oldid=126819395 User:The prophet wizard of the crayon cake]''

Don't be shy. The meat of most userpages is the bio of the person behind it. Other editors wish to get to know ''you''. Why disappoint them? Many great userpages have detailed bios. ''Examples: [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Antandrus&oldid=183968410 User:Antandrus] and [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Binksternet&oldid=739584867 User:Binksternet].''

Who are you? Where do you live? What are your hobbies? What is your area of expertise? What kind of work do you do here at Wikipedia? Especially that last one. What are your hopes and aspirations for this encyclopedia? What is your vision of what it can become? ''Example: [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:CatherineMunro&oldid=167525071 User:CatherineMunro].''

Sharing your dreams may make them come true.

Another example of ''Wikimagic''.

=== Experiment and don't be afraid to ask for help ===

You're highly encouraged to experiment with markup; in the same line as being creative, it also gives you some valuable experience with HTML. After all, what's a userpage if you can't understand the code on it? And don't be afraid to [[WP:HELPDESK|ask for help]] if you get stuck.

=== Consider a theme ===

Many of the best userpages present a theme. It can be an artistic theme in the layout, or a conceptual theme in the content presentation. If you would like your page to stand out, then avoid making it a loosely tied assortment of random boxes and tidbits of information.

=== Mix up your colors ===

Stylistically, colors can really affect a page's appeal. They can accent a theme. They can set a mood. They can imply your nature. Are you always smiling? Then bright colors could help you present yourself as a happy person to the entire world. Smooth, splashy, serene, or serious – they can all be attained via colors. For color codes, see [[Web colors]]. ''For how to apply them to page elements, see [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:The_prophet_wizard_of_the_crayon_cake&oldid=126819395 User:The_prophet_wizard_of_the_crayon_cake].''

=== Use images to get your point across ===

Some of the most striking user pages present a radical combination of images to impact the viewer. What better way to get one's point across? They don't say "a picture is worth a thousands words" for nothing. And while words can familiarize someone with the inner you, images can provide an actual glimpse for them into your world. ''See [[MOS:IMAGESYNTAX|How to place an image]] and [[Wikipedia:Picture tutorial]]. Or find a picture in a Wikipedia article, and copy its wikicode from the edit window.''

''But, before you use images, be sure to see [[Wikipedia:Image dos and don'ts]].''

Images are also a major component of the encyclopedia, and are another way for contributors to shine. Your user page is the perfect place to showcase your visual contributions, sprinkled throughout the page, or presented as a gallery.

Many more free pictures can be found at [[Commons:|Wikimedia Commons]].

== Bigger is not necessarily better ==

Some users keep it short and sweet. The less you say, the more weight each word carries. In a minimalist design, a user might just state the one or a handful of things they wish to emphasize. Or simply provide links to elsewhere, relying on subpages to elaborate—this may make a crisp and clean first impression. One such design is the "hub" style userpage: like the one by [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:AxG&oldid=722412274 AxG]. (The User page design guide's [[WP:UPDC|main page]] utilizes a hub design). Another is the central image style, showcasing a single picture, accompanied by tabs or a menu for further navigation, like used by [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Trevor_MacInnis&oldid=320353070 Trevor_MacInnis]. Generally, "minimalist" would be a page that requires no scrolling.

== See also ==

* [[Wikipedia:WikiProject User Page Help]] - the WikiProject dedicated to assisting users with their user page.

* [[Wikipedia:Template messages/User namespace]] - various messages for use on user pages.

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